Ken Ki
by Scarred Sword Heart
Summary: Kenshin teaches his son how to sense and cloak the swordsman's special awareness known as ken ki.
1. Ki Training

**Disclaimer: Watsuki-sensei is the king. Sony, Shueisha, Media Blasters, ADV, Fuji TV and Viz are the nobles. I'm just a little pion. I thank Watsuki-sensei for this opportunity. I write for the love, not for the money.**

Meiji Jidai: Year 18, April, 1885  
Countryside just outside of Tokyo

A pair of redheads walked slowly and easily through the countryside on the pretty spring day. The flowers were just starting to bloom and the trees were getting tiny green buds that would grow into leaves. Spring was Kenshin's favorite time of year, the time when the death of winter melted away and gave birth to the life of spring.

Beside him walked his six-year-old son Kenji. Kenji was a proud and independent little boy. He always wanted to do things himself and hated asking his parents for help, which sometimes led to trouble. Such was the time when he was four and wanted to get a drink of water at night, he had gone out back to the well and fallen in. Fortunately, Kenshin had felt a jolt from the boy's ki which brought him instantly awake, enabling him to save the lad before he drowned.

Kenshin decided that since Kenji would be going off to school soon, it wouldn't hurt to start the boy's ken ki training. Ken ki was a great survival tool because it allowed the user to read the emotions of those around him and to be aware of any danger before it had a chance to strike. It also could enable a person to find someone they were separated from by casting out their senses, similar to the way a bat uses echolocation to catch insects.

When they got out to the field, which was wide and open and beautiful, Kenshin stopped and knelt down so he was eye-level with his son.

"I'm up for some hide-and-seek. Would that suit you?" he asked.

Kenji's face brightened. Oh how he loved hide and seek!

"OK Dad. Who goes first?" he said.

"I'll let you hide first," said Kenshin.

Kenji, eyes gleaming with delight, broke away from Kenshin's sight while Kenshin closed his eyes and started counting to 20. Kenji ran into the forest that surrounded the meadow and found a large, hollowed-out old tree, the trunk of which he could easily fit into. Kenji sat quietly as he heard Dad's voice call out that he was coming to find him.

Since the day he'd played hide-and-seek with Kenji as a four-year-old and told him about the "special power" that allowed him to find him, Kenshin had made a greater effort to pretend not to know where the child was just at first, so he wouldn't be discouraged. Today however, he went straight for the tree and tagged up Kenji.

"Found you," he said, standing at the entrace with a smile.

"How?" said Kenji, as he stepped out of the tree. "Were you cheating, Dad?" Kenji couldn't believe Dad would do such a thing, but how else would he find him so easily?

"Iie son, I wasn't cheating. You remember that day we played this and I found you hiding on the other side of the dojo?" asked Kenshin.

"Sort of," said Kenji, wrinkling up his face to remember. "You said it was a trick."

"That's right," said Kenshin. "Today, I would like to teach you the secret behind the 'trick'. Would you like to learn?"

"Aa!" shouted the boy. Kenshin smiled at his son's enthusiasm.

"The secret of the trick is called ken ki," Kenshin started out. "It's the ability to read another person's feelings, even when they don't tell you what they are. When you master the ability, you'll be able to locate another person even when you can't see them."

"Oh," said Kenji, eyes widening. "How do I do that?"

Kenshin led his son back out onto the meadow before answering.

"When searching for someone with ki, you must empty your mind of all thought. Concentrate on feeling for that person's presence in your area. Unless they're a well-trained warrior, they won't be able to hide from you," said Dad.

"How do I do that, Dad?" said Kenji.

"Close your eyes and think of nothing at all," said Kenshin.

Kenji closed his eyes and concentrated on the blackness before his eyes. Kenshin sensed the change in his small son's ki.

"Now, let your mind expand beyond your head, covering the whole area around us," said Kenshin in a soft voice.

It was hard at first, but Kenji concentrated and as he did so, a picture of the forest arose in his mind's eye. He sensed something living. A deer, no two! There were two deer... to the left of them. Then another creature came to his mind's eye. A tanuki! Swallowing the urge to laugh, Kenji visualized the tanuki and the two deer.

"Two deer and a tanuki," he said softly.

"That's right," said Dad. "Very good, son."

Kenji opened his eyes and smiled at Dad, who returned the smile. After a moment, Dad's face was serious again, his eyes looking straight ahead.

"That was the first part of your training. Now comes the second," said Kenshin, reaching into his gi sleeve and pulling out a strip of cloth. He tied the strip of cloth over Kenji's eyes, blindfolding him. "I want you to search for me with your ki instead of your eyes."

"I'll try, Dad," said Kenji.

A moment later, he felt a soft gust of wind as Dad disappeared using his shinsoku. The little boy cast out his mind, visualizing the landscape as he'd done before. The deer were gone, but the tanuki was still there. It was now more in front of him than to the left. To the right! It was a very powerful ki, but also a friendly and familiar one. Dad! Kenji rose from where he was sitting, and followed the ki to the tree that his sire was in and tilted his head up.

"Found you," he called up.

A moment later, Kenji heard his Dad land beside him. Then he heard the sound of Kenshin's gentle laughter.

"You can take that off now," said Kenshin.

Kenji removed the blindfold and looked up into Dad's smiling face and gentle violet eyes.

"Wonderful. I'm proud of you koshishi," said Dad softly, putting his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"Thank you, Dad," said Kenji.

"Now, the next part of using ken ki is not so easy. You've seen how reading someone's ki enables you to find them. A warrior must be able to keep from being found, is that not so?" said Kenshin.

"Hai," said Kenji.

"As important as the ability to read and locate someone else's ki is the ability to cloak, or hide your own," said Dad solemnly.

"How?" asked Kenji.

"You know how you hate to cry out and ask for help?" asked Kenshin.

Kenji nodded.

"Masking your ki is like that in a way. Eventhough you want to cry out, you swallow the urge. When cloaking your ki, you must literally lock your thoughts and feelings away so deeply that even you don't notice them. If your mind is clear, those seeking you won't be able to read your ki," said Kenshin.

"That sounds hard," said Kenji.

"It's the hardest part of ki mastery. It's much harder than reading ki and takes longer to master. I won't expect you to master this part as easily as the first," said Kenshin.

"I'm ready to try it," said Kenji. Dad nodded.

"You go and hide again. Remember, shut down your mind," said Kenshin.

Kenji took off like a dart. He'd find the best hiding place in the area and cover his feelings so well that Dad wouldn't be able to find him. As the sound of Kenshin's voice counting to 20 faded, Kenji began looking around in earnest. It had to be a really fine hiding place. Then he saw something out of the corner of his left eye: a cave! Kenji approached the mouth of the cave and looked inside. It was deep and dark, the perfect place to hide.

Kenji slipped into the cave and walked forward slowly, looking right and left. In the distance, Kenji heard Dad call out that he was coming for him. Kenji found a little recess in the cave wall that was just the right size for a small boy and hunkered down, steeling himself so he didn't give off any feelings. Dad would never find him here!

-  
Walking slowly with his eyes shut, Kenshin cast out his senses to find Kenji's ki. Because he was a master of ki, he was able to do this without stopping and concentrating, giving him the advantage of being able to do it while walking.

At first, he didn't sense anything. Kenji's ki was usually so intense that it almost assaulted his own senses. Kenshin extended his ki again, more intensely this time. He picked up the ki of a small boy way up ahead, beyond a small line of trees in the cave that most people didn't know about. To Kenji's credit, his ki was nowhere near as easily read as it usually was. Kenshin made his toward the cave.

-  
Kenji, feeling Dad's ki approaching the cave, decided to have some fun. He broke away from his hiding place and went in deeper. He decided that he wanted to play tag instead of just hide and seek. When Kenshin sensed the faint ki moving deeper into the cave, he became worried.

Kenshin ran into the cave, concentrating on Kenji's ki, which seemed to grow fainter by the minute, as if the boy were getting better at cloaking it. Kenshin didn't dare call his son's name, as that could cause a cave-in. He moved as quickly as he could without summoning the shinsoku, not wanting to use it again so soon.

Suddenly, something else flared in Kenshin's ki. The land felt unstable and was giving off strange vibrations, vibrations he'd only felt in the past before an earthquake, for which Japan was infamous.The last place they wanted to be during an earthquake was a cave. Kenshin picked up his speed. Finally Kenji was in his sight.

Kenji felt the disturbance in the earth as well and it frightened hiim, as he'd never experienced such a thing. So distracted was he by this that he didn't sense the strong ki coming up behind him and barely had time to react before he was in Dad's arms. Now Kenshin did summon the shinsoku. Moving at break-neck speed, he charged for the mouth of the cave just as his ken ki prediction came true. The ground beneath them started to shake, rocks started to fall from the ceiling.

Kenshin used his grace and agility to dodge each falling rock and jump over where the ground started to crack open. He tucked and rolled out of the cave mouth just as a load of huge rocks fell from the ceiling and sealed up the cave.

The earthquake was over almost as soon as it started. The land wasn't too badly torn up, though it was ruptured in some places. Kenshin and Kenji stared back at that cave. If they'd been a second longer in getting out, they'd both be dead.

"Are you alright?" asked Kenshin.

Kenji nodded, too much in shock to speak. This was his first earthquake and he was understandably frightened. Uncharacteristic of the independent little soul he was, Kenji clung tightly to his dad and shivered. Kenshin held the boy close to him as they started away from the cave. There was still the risk of aftershocks, so he wanted to get home to Kaoru and make sure everything was alright at the dojo.

"What was that, Dad? Why'd the ground shake?" whispered Kenji, once he'd recovered his power of speech.

"That was an earthquake," said Kenshin. "Japan has had many earthquakes in the past. This one was quite mild compared to some."

"What causes them?" asked Kenji.

"I don't know, son," said Kenshin.

"How did you find me so fast, Dad? I was trying to cloak my ki," said Kenji as they went along. "I failed, didn't I?"

"No, not at all. I had a harder time finding you than usual because your ki was so faint," said Kenshin. "You did well for your first time."

"How'd you know there was gonna be an earthquake?" asked Kenji.

"That's another part of ken ki, being able to read signals from the land," said Kenshin. "I'll teach you that another time."

"I can't wait!" said Kenji, seeming to be recovering from the shock. Nonetheless, he didn't ask Kenshin to put him down and was content to be carried in his sire's strong arms.


	2. Sensing the Ki

Back at the dojo, Kaoru was worried and pacing. The earthquake hadn't done too much damage, just a few broken bowls and knocked over furniture. But where were Kenshin and Kenji? She hoped that neither of them was hurt. She debated whether she should wait for them to come home or go looking herself. If she left and they came home to an empty dojo, Kenshin would panic, which wasn't good. But if she stayed and they were hurt somewhere, they mightn't be found till it was too late. After a few minutes' deliberation, Kaoru decided to head out in search of them, following the path she'd seen them take.

After changing into her training clothes, which would allow for greater freedom of movement in the countryside, Kaoru closed the back gate behind her and started out. She didn't know which way they'd gone and there were so many. Kaoru decided she'd just go along and hope she ran into them. If she didn't find them in an hour, she'd head back. Kaoru walked along slowly in the forest, dappled with sunlight, keeping a sharp eye out for even a glimpse of red.

-  
Kenshin's and Kenji's kis suddenly flared up again. They braced themselves as an aftershock tore through the ground. Kenji clutched his dad's neck. Kenshin had to keep the boy in a vicelike grip to keep him from falling from his arms. The aftershock was worse than the earthquake! A few large trees were uprooted and fell down in front of them. Kenshin started running again, jumping and dodging flying debris and the ground splitting open, threatening to swallow them both up.

-  
Kaoru felt the ground shake and jumped to the side just in time to avoid the ground splitting up in front of her and swallowing her whole. She moved with the grace borne of her years studying kenjutsu, dodging stuff getting flung up at her from the ground. However, she couldn't dodge everything and was hit in the left knee by a large rock, which sent her to the ground. As she fell to the ground, Kaoru's head hit the trunk of a tree, knocking her out cold just as the aftershock stopped.

-  
Kenshin pulled up as the aftershock let up. He and Kenji looked about them. The land was eerily still. Kenji's ki flared up. He pointed off to their left.

"There's something that way," he said.

After a brief debate of whether or not to listen to the boy, Kenshin decided to trust his son's newfound training. Giving a brief nod of acknowledgement, Kenshin set off in the direction that the faint ki came from.

The feeling of the faint ki was hard to pinpoint. Somehow though, Kenji seemed to be able to sense what his Dad could not. His little finger kept pointing in the direction it came from. He was very glad he took his son seriously when they came out and found Kaoru still knocked out cold under the momiji tree. Setting Kenji down, Kenshin was instantly at his wife's side. He gently tapped her cheek with the back of his hand, trying to rouse her.

"Kaoru?" he said, on the verge of total panic.

Kenji approached his Mom from the other side.

"Mom? Mom, wake up," he said softly.

Kaoru's eyelids flickered and then opened, looking up into the worried faces of her two red-heads. Kenshin, too overcome with relief to maintain propriety in front of their son, pulled her into his arms.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice choked with emotion.

"I'm fine," said Kaoru reassuringly, caressing Kenshin's cheek. "I'm sorry for scaring you. I went out to look for you two, but you found me."

Still shaking, Kenshin smiled at his wife and shook his head.

"It wasn't really me. It was Kenji who sensed you," he said, locking his gaze on their young son.

"Kenji-chan?" said Kaoru, gazing at the boy also. "You sensed me on only your first day of ki training?"

Kenji shook his head.

"I didn't sense you, Mom," he said. Kenji knelt down and touched her stomach. "I sensed this."

"You sensed my stomach?" asked Kaoru.

Kenji nodded solemly. Kenshin and Kaoru exchanged glances, but now was not the time for discussion. Kenshin stood up, Kaoru still in his arms and started walking back to the dojo.

"No, Kenshin. I can walk," protested Kaoru.

"With that knee?" said Kenshin, his eyes travelling to her bloodied left knee.

"Damn..." said Kaoru under her breath.

Kenji gleefully walked behind his parents. He was excited. He wasn't certain what it was he'd sensed in the forest, but there was something new inside Mom, something he'd never sensed before. It was a ki, small but so very bright. What could it be?

-  
After they arrived back at the dojo, Kenshin got right to work cleaning and bandaging the wounds Kaoru had suffered. She had to argue to convince Kenshin not to put her on forced bedrest. He did however, insist that she take things easy for the rest of the day and he would attend to all the remaining housework. Kenji offered to help too.

That night, Kaoru tucked Kenji into his little futon. Kenji's hand again found its way to her stomach and his bright blue eyes concentrated on it so intently, it seemed as if he were communicating with whatever it was.

"Good night," he said to Kaoru's stomach.

"Kenji-chan? What has you so fascinated by my stomach all of a sudden?" said Kaoru, honestly curious about her son's odd behavior.

"Ki," said Kenji solemnly.

"In my stomach?" said Kaoru.

"Aa," said Kenji, finally raising his eyes to meet Mom's.

"What does it look like?" asked Kaoru, remembering Kenshin telling her that swordsmen could see ki in their mind's eye.

"Bright," said Kenji.

"Is that so?" said Kaoru, ruffling Kenji's titian locks. 'I wonder. Could I be...'

"Aa," said Kenji again.

"Good night, Kenji-chan," said Kaoru.

"Good night, Mom," said Kenji, snuggling with his rooster.

Kaoru kissed Kenji on the forehead and left the room, sliding the door shut behind her.

-  
Kaoru slipped under the covers and snuggled up with Kenshin, who ran his fingers through her hair. The couple laid together for a long time, staring intently into each other's eyes.

"Kenji really led you to me?" asked Kaoru as she ran her fingers through Kenshin's mane.

"He took me straight to you," said Kenshin. "It was strange because I didn't sense anything at all, but he said he felt something. If I hadn't listened..."

"But you did. You both found me. We're all home safe and alive," said Kaoru, pulling her husband up short before he started blaming himself for a tragedy that never occurred.

"He's an amazing child," said Kenshin softly.

"He takes after his Dad," said Kaoru, tickling Kenshin's face with a lock of his ruby hair.

Kenshin wrinkled his face at the sensation.

"So what do you think of the ki he sensed in my stomach? Do you think it could be?" asked Kaoru.

Kenshin smiled at her. "It's certainly possible," said Kenshin.

"I hope a second child is welcome," said Kaoru softly.

"Of course they are," said Kenshin. "As would be the fourth, fifth and sixth."

"Let's not get carried away," said Kaoru.

-  
The next day...

After thoroughly emptying her stomach in the outhouse, Kaoru came inside to find the two red-heads sitting and staring at her intently. With a small sigh, she sat down between them. Kenji snuggled up to her and she put her arm around him.

"Mom has something to tell you, Kenji-chan," said Kenshin.

Kenji looked at Mom intently.

"Our family is about to get bigger again," said Kaoru softly.

"I think you're right," said Kenshin.

"You mean the ki inside you?" asked Kenji, looking into Mom's eyes.

"Yes. You're going to be a big brother," said Kaoru.

"Really?" asked Kenji.

"Yes, the ki you've been sensing is your little brother or sister," said Kenshin softly.

"When will I see my little brother or sister?" asked the excited boy.

"I'd say about eight months," said Kaoru.

"Mom, was I inside you like that once?" asked Kenji.

"Yes you were," said Kaoru. "I carried you in my stomach for nine months.

"Does it hurt?" asked Kenji.

"It gets a bit awkward toward the end, but it doesn't really hurt like a scrape," said Kaoru.

"Can I help?" asked Kenji.

"Yes you can," said Kenshin seriously. "When your little brother or sister is born, it will be your duty as the older brother to protect them."

"Protect them with Kamiya Kasshin?" asked Kenji.

"If necessary," said Kaoru. "But mostly, just look out for them, set a good example for them. Your little brother or sister will look up to you and want to be like you."

Kenji's blue eyes were as big as saucers by now. Being a niisan was going to be a huge responsibility. He would do it! Whatever it took, Himura Kenji was determined to be the best niisan in Japan.

"Yeah! I can do it," he said.

"As if there was any doubt," said Kenshin, ruffling the boy's hair.

Owari 


End file.
